Fruit and vegetables continue to be plasticized in shops. Apples, pears, carrots, cucumbers, onions and other vegetables are still hermetically wrapped in plastic. And often without a logical need to justify it.
It is another example of the proliferation of this material. There is a royal decree that prohibits this type of wrapping on bulk products, but it will not come into force until the end of the year. In the meantime, “everyone is packaging as they want”, admit sources in the sector. “More than 90% of these products, fruits and vegetables, do not need plastic material to be preserved; this wrapping would not be necessary”, explains Luis Gil Vicente, an expert in packaging technologies from Ainia, a technological innovation centre.
This expert attributes this unjustified over-packaging to the desire of brands to want to differentiate themselves by using the packaging as a support to place their own messages. “Excessive packaging is of interest to companies, because it allows them to differentiate themselves, put the label, the characteristics and other differentiating elements on it”, he says.
The Royal Packaging Decree (of December 27, 2022) prohibits whole fruits and vegetables sold in bulk from being wrapped in plastic. However, the regulations will not come into force until December. In addition, this veto includes the possibility that they authorize exceptions yet to be specified.
Firstly, the regulations allow you to continue using plastic if the bag of fruit and vegetables sold weighs 1.5 kilos or more.
Fruits and vegetables under a protected variety, which have a differentiated quality or come from organic farming, could also be exempted from the plastic ban. Also, those that present a risk of deterioration when sold can be excluded. In all these exceptional cases, it will be the Spanish Food Safety and Nutrition Agency (Aesan) that will agree on a list of foods that could be covered by the exception.
The administrations have until June to fix this list; and once it is already defined, they will give the trade another six months so that it can adapt before it comes into force. The result is that the rule will not apply until next December.
There are some products, such as strawberries, strawberries, blueberries or raspberries, and in general red fruits, which are very fragile, which “necessarily must be protected in some way to avoid damage”, says Gil. In the case of red fruits, the solution that the Food Safety Agency will predictably adopt will be the use of PET plastic trays, although they could be protected with cardboard boxes (material not subject to the restriction). Restrictions will not prevent us from seeing four apples in a cardboard case soon. Gil says that the exceptions will be very specific and will have to be justified. “For example, not all pears will go without plastic, but perhaps some variety does require it”, he points out. The Rezero Foundation fears that exceptions will be the norm and that the spirit of the Royal Packaging Decree will continue to be distorted.
